Why
Writing and creating performances can take years. You begin writing a play or a story and months or a couple years later it starts to make its way out into the world, through readings or workshops. Then, later still, a production or publication comes along, if you are persistent and lucky. I started this project in order to have something immediate, short-term, fun, and collaborative. A project that defies the usual rules of the game—it’s fast, cheap, responsive, and playful. This project has allowed me to explore new forms of performance and publishing, and also to build a project specifically aimed at providing opportunities for women—a group persistently excluded from both publishing and performance establishments even in the 21st century.
What
Project Website: www.newacquisition.org
Summary:
Since 2007, New Acquisition has distributed nearly 5,000 pamphlets at public performances, bookstores, and art galleries around New York City.
Each pamphlet is filled with writing and art focused on themes drawn from early and contemporary American religious and political pamphlets. The group then creates performances and/or installations that act as a means for us to distribute the pamphlets to the general public (which are given away for free) and engage them in the ideas discussed in the pamphlets.
The primary goals of New Acquisition are 1) to encourage artists to react creatively to contemporary political and social debates; 2) to help wrestle literary and artistic work out of the ever-shrinking niche that it generally exists within; and 3) to expose the public to contemporary creative work by emerging female artists and writers via mass distribution of pamphlets—creative people who are currently under-represented in literary magazines, book publishing and art galleries.
When & Where
Availability: Available for touring and performance.
Production History:
Past performance venues include: Chashama, the One Million Forgotten Moments project, the 2008 New York Dance Parade, and FIGMENT 2008.
For complete information about this project, please visit the New Acquisition website.
